Vice, Cosmopolitan and Tastemade join five French media companies as Discover launch partners in France

Snapchat on Thursday plans to launch Snapchat Discover in France, and it’s taking three American media companies along for the ride.

The social media app introduced its Discover section in early 2015 as a hub for media companies like ESPN and CNN to distribute Snapchat-tailored content, including videos, articles and animation. Such content has been available globally and has been popular in English-speaking countries outside the U.S., according to Snapchat.

But France marks Snapchat’s first non-English market to feature Discover.

Among the eight launch partners for Snapchat Discover in France are U.S.-based media outlets Vice Media, Tastemade and Cosmopolitan. The publishers plan to produce original content in French for the local feature.

Five French media brands are also part of the rollout, including the newspaper Le Monde, the sports media company L’Équipe, the magazine Paris Match, the digital publisher Melty and the multimedia brand Konbini.

Snapchat says that Discover has over 100 million visitors each month across the globe, and that the app itself has 8 million daily active users in France.

Thus, for the U.S. media companies involved, the French Discover launch provides an instant opportunity to tap into that young, vibrant European audience.

Vice has been active in France since 2007. The company is close to bringing its new cable network Viceland to the market through a partnership with Canal+.

“As we continue our growth in France across all screens and platforms, extending our Discover partnership to the French market is a key step in helping us reach young people wherever they are,” said a Vice spokesman.

Meanwhile, Cosmopolitan has been publishing in France since 1973. Executives from Cosmopolitan were unavailable for comment.

While Vice and Cosmopolitan already boast of an international footprint, the launch represents a way for four-year-old Tastemade to accelerate its global expansion on the back of a huge partner. The company has already taken that approach by rolling out in Brazil last year with local content distributed via Apple TV.

The food-centric digital media firm has already built up a network of local French creators on YouTube and other digital outlets, said co-founder
Steven Kydd.
Over the past few months Tastemade has been working with this local talent to create original Snapchat content for the launch.

While Tastemade may borrow some of its existing U.S. video formats, as it enters new markets the plan is to produce localized fare. “We think this requires a different approach,” he said.

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